tenderness of filial affection, an instance of which appeared in his ordering the gravestones and inscription over Elizabeth Blaney (see vol. i., p. 12, n. 1) to be substantially and carefully renewed. To Mr. Henry White,' a young clergyman, with whom he now formed an intimacy, so as to talk to him with great freedom, he mentioned that he could not in general accuse himself of having been an undutiful son. "Once, indeed," said he, "I was disobedient: I refused to attend my father to Uttoxeter market. Pride was the source of that refusal, and the remembrance of it was painful. A few years ago I desired to atone for this fault. I went to Uttoxeter' in very bad weather, and that he was desired to accept it without paying any fine on the occasion; which lease was afterwards granted, and the doctor died possessed of this property."-Malone. The Corporation of Lichfield renewed the lease March 6, 1866, "the tenant covenanting to keep the premises in the present state, in remembrance of Dr. Johnson” (words of the minute). I gladly record that I owe this information to Charles Simpson, Esq., now (1882) Town Clerk of Lichfield, and grandson of Mr. Charles Simpson, who held the same office in the corporation of the city, when, as we see above, a lease was granted, Aug. 15, 1767. Mr. Simpson, by whom this fact was communicated, was intimately acquainted with Henry White, of whom we read in the next paragraph, and heard from him many of the Lichfield traditions concerning Johnson. See vol. i., p. 15, note.-Editor. To whom there is a memorial tablet in Lichfield Cathedral with this inscription: "Henry White, sacrist of Lichfield Cathedral. Died April 8, 1836. Aged 74 years."-Editor. 2 It has been mentioned (vol. i., p. 15, note) that a statue of Johnson, by Lucas, was presented, 1838, to the city of Lichfield, by Chancellor Law, and erected immediately opposite to the Johnson house. It has also been there stated, that three bas-reliefs illustrative of events in Johnson's life adorn the pedestal of this statue. One, as we have seen above, represents the Sacheverel incident; another Johnson borne to school by his school companions (see vol. i., p. 21); and the third, Johnson's penance at Uttoxeter. A replica of the latter has been inserted in the conduit of the market place of Uttoxeter (1878) by the munificence of the Rev. Henry Abud, the present incumbent. In the Rev. Richard Warner's Tour (1802) through the Northern Counties, vol. i., p. 105-107, there is another version of this incident, of which the incoherence is transparent. There the act of penance is placed in the last visit of Johnson to Lichfield, some time, therefore, during the month of October, 1784, and just fifty years to stood for a considerable time bare-headed in the rain, on the spot where my father's stall' used to stand. In contrition I stood, and I hope the penance was expiatory." "I told him," says Miss Seward, "in one of my latest visits to him, of a wonderful learned pig which I had seen at Nottingham; and which did all that we have observed exhibited by dogs and horses. The subject amused him. Then,' said 'the pigs are a race unjustly calumniated. Pig has, it seems, not been wanting to man, but man to pig. We do not allow time for his education; we kill him at a year old.' Mr. Henry White, who was present, observed that if this instance had happened in or before Pope's time, he would not have been a day since the act of disobedience for which Johnson sought to atone. But if we read the text, we see that during this visit he had formed an acquaintance with Henry White, a young clergyman of the city, and told him that "a few years ago"-a few years, therefore, before 1784-he atoned for the act of disobedience to his father in the manner described. We are not aware that this story of Johnson's penance at Uttoxeter can be traced to any other authority than that of this young clergyman, Henry White; and if his version be accepted as true, Warner's must be regarded as a version with embellishments.-Editor. 1 1 Though rather out of due place, it may be mentioned that Michael Johnson was a publisher-a distinction by no means common, in those days, among booksellers in provincial cities or towns. There is in the Forster Library, South Kensington Museum, a rare and curious volume : "Grammatica-Anglo-Romana: or, a Syncritical Grammar, teaching English Youth the Latin Tongue by Few and Easy Rules, comparing English and Latin, with a Comment for the Use of Riper Years; containing the elegancies and explaining the difficult phrases and idioms, which are peculiar to the Latin. Fitted to the sense of the Learned Oxford Commentator upon Lilly's Grammar. By Samuel Shaw, Master of the Free School in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire. London. Printed for Michael Johnson, Bookseller; and are to be sold at his shops in Lichfield and Uttoxeter in Staffordshire, and Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire. 1687." Notes and Queries, 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 459, mentions: "The Præternatural State of Animal Humours described, by Sir John Floyer: London, printed by W. Downing for Michael Johnson, and are to be sold by Robert Clavel, Sam. Smith, and Benjamin Walford, in St. Paul's Churchyard. 1696,” and also, ibid., vol. iv., p. 388, a somewhat later publication, an Exposition of the Revelations, by showing the agreement of the prophetical symbols with the history of the Roman, Saracen, and Ottoman Empire, and of the Popedom, &c. 8vo. Printed for Michael Johnson, Bookseller in Lichfield. 1719.--Editor. justified in instancing the swine as the lowest degree of grovelling instinct. Dr. Johnson seemed pleased with the observation, while the person who made it proceeded to remark, that great torture must have been employed, ere the indocility of the animal could have been subdued.—‘Certainly,' said the Doctor; but,' turning to me, 'how old is your pig?' I told him, three years old. 'Then,' said he, 'the pig has no cause to complain; he would have been killed the first year if he had not been educated, and protracted existence is a good recompence for very considerable degrees of torture.'" As Johnson had now very faint hopes of recovery, and as Mrs. Thrale was no longer devoted to him, it might have been supposed that he would naturally have chosen to remain in the comfortable house of his beloved wife's daughter, and end his life where he began it. But there was in him an animated and lofty spirit; and however complicated diseases might depress ordinary mortals, all who saw him beheld and acknowledge the invictum animum Catonis. Such was his intellectual ardour even at this time, that he said to one friend, "Sir, I look upon every day to be lost in which I do not make a new acquaintance;” and to another, when talking of his illness, “I will be conquered; I will not capitulate." And such was his love of London, so high a relish had he of its magnificent extent and variety of intellectual entertainment, that he languished when absent from it, his mind having become quite luxurious from the long habit of enjoying the metropolis; and, therefore, although at Lichfield, surrounded with friends who loved and revered him, and for whom he had a very sincere affection, he still found that such conversation as London affords could be found nowhere else. These feelings, joined probably to some flattering hopes of aid from the eminent physicians and surgeons in London, who kindly and gener 1 Mr. Burke suggested to me, as applicable to Johnson, what Cicero, in his Cato Major (cap. xi.), says of Appius: Intentum enim animum, tanquam arcum, habebat, nec languescens succumbebat senectuti;" repeating at the same time the following noble words in the same passage: “Ita enim senectus honesta est, si se ipsa defendit, si jus suum retinet, si nemini mancipata est, si usque ad extremum spiritum vindicet jus suum. ously attended him without accepting fees, made him resolve to return to the capital. From Lichfield he came to Birmingham, where he passed a few days with his worthy old schoolfellow, Mr. Hector, who thus writes to me: "He was very solicitous with me to recollect some of our most early transactions, and transmit them to him, for I perceived nothing gave him greater pleasure than calling to mind those days of our innocence. I complied with his request, and he only received them a few days before his death. I have transcribed for your inspection exactly the minutes I wrote to him." This paper having been found in his repositories after his death, Sir John Hawkins has inserted it entire, and I have made occasional use of it and other communications from Mr. Hector in the course of this work. I have both visited and corresponded with him since Dr. Johnson's death, and by my inquiries concerning a great variety of particulars, have obtained additional information. I followed the same mode with the Reverend Dr. Taylor, in whose presence I wrote down a good deal of what he could tell; and he, at my request, signed his name, to give it authenticity. It is very rare to find any person who is able to give a distinct account of the life even of one whom he has known intimately, without questions being put to them. My friend Dr. Kippis has told me, that on this account it is a practice with him to draw out a biographical catechism. Johnson then proceeded to Oxford, where he was again 1 It is a most agreeable circumstance attending the publication of this work, that Mr. Hector has survived his illustrious schoolfellow so many years; that he still retains his health and spirits; and has gratified me with the following acknowledgment: "I thank you, most sincerely thank you, for the great and long-continued entertainment your Life of Dr. Johnson has afforded me, and others of my particular friends." Mr. Hector, besides setting me right as to the verses on a Sprig of Myrtle, has favoured me with two English odes, written by Dr. Johnson at an early period of his life, which will appear in my edition of his poems. This early and worthy friend of Johnson died at Birmingham, 2nd of September, 1794.—Malone. I am sorry to ser you engaged in altercation. with a Lady, who seems unwilling to be conorned of her vrrows, surely it would be more ingenuous to acknowledge, then to pervsvére. Imost solemnly declare, at that time Johnsen was an inhie stranger to I Porter & family; & it was almost two years after, that I introdued him be the as quazn bance of Perter, whond laught my Cleathe of If y entend to convince this obshrale booman (. to enhibit to y) prablich, o tulk of you passakin yoman alliberty to make what un please of this statement ། 24 James Boswel 209 Hector Mr. Hector Birmingham |